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Seaside industry park Rauma

Suits the needs of the maritime cluster

Rauma is a city of nearly 40,000 residents on Finland’s west coast. The Port of Rauma is one of the largest and busiest in Finland. Since 2014, Seaside Industry Park Rauma has provided a good operational environment for many types of maritime companies having extensive know-how of shipbuilding and related fields of work. Cooperation has also helped Rauma’s new shipyard.

The Seaside Industry Park in Rauma is an industrial park complex for heavy maritime industry. The park consists of facilities for independent companies and is situated within the former shipyard area.

The idea of the industry park is to offer an efficient and strategically placed environment to companies in the Finnish maritime cluster, complete with shared infrastructure and services.

The park is conveniently situated in a logistics hub. Two shipping routes lead to Rauma. The port has regular liner traffic to different parts of Europe, the U.S., and Asia.

Rauma’s location on the western coast of Finland is also a benefit, with good connections to Finland and abroad. Additionally, the freight transportation railway enables transports around Finland. For other types of transport, highways and airports are situated close by.

Efficient operation
The companies selected to Seaside Industry Park form a mutually supportive service entity that is managed and coordinated by RMTK (Rauma Maritime Industry Estates). RMTK leases the park’s facilities and equipment, plus organises the maintenance and shared services required.

”Seaside Industry Park Rauma is operating very smoothly. In the spring of 2019, the park celebrated its fifth birthday,” says Managing Director Timo Luukkonen from Rauma Maritime Industry Estates (RMTK).

”Practically throughout this period, the park has had an average of more than 30 different companies as tenants. The production and storage space has been in efficient use. There has also been constant growth, with further development of operations as well as additional space and infrastructure being built.”

The Seaside Industry Park features 35,000 square metres of production facilities, as well as some 20,000 square metres for office space and storage facilities.

Seaside Industry Park Rauma offers a complete infrastructure to its companies. The buildings are particularly suited for heavy industries that require a lot of space, cranes, a basin, and other industrial equipment.

The companies within the area have an extensive and efficient network of suppliers. Small and medium-sized companies have opportunities to take part in largescale projects.

New investments
Mr. Luukkonen points out that amongst others, Kongsberg Marine – formerly Rolls- Royce Marine – has recently carried out new investments for facilities at the industry park, in cooperation with RMTK. Of these investments, RMTK’s share exceeds eight million euros.

”Another one million euros is being used annually for maintaining the infrastructure within the industry park. We also acquired an adjoining estate of 3,000 square metres, so that the industry park now has a total of 55,000 square metres being leased to maritime companies. In the near future, a new hall for hull-block assembly will also be built.”

This new hall will have a height of 30 metres and it is expected to be in operation in 2020, with an investment budget of 15 million euros.

”The point is that the companies within the park area are connected to the maritime cluster. This yields many kinds of synergy benefits, such as shared business projects and subcontractor networks.”

Furthermore, the industrial park has a shared environmental licence that covers all the companies operating in the park, so that applying for separate licences is not necessary.

Flexible shared services
The industry park is a good operational platform for many types of companies of varying sizes.

”There are shipbuilding companies, propulsion unit manufacturers, industrial painting and surface-treatment companies, steel structure suppliers, engineering companies, measurement service providers, and so on.”

”In addition, the industry park offers various and flexible shared services, such as security, catering, electricity, heating, gas, waterworks, and information technology networks. This makes it easier for the companies to concentrate on their core business activities. Since last autumn, the park has been powered by a 500 kW solar power plant,” notes Luukkonen.

He expects that the new orders for ships that are soon being built at Rauma’s RMC shipyard – including both passenger ferries and Finnish Navy ships – will bring a lot of additional work also for the marine cluster companies at the industry park.

”Probably all of the industry park’s facilities will be leased for full-scale work at least until the year 2027. The future seems bright,” Luukkonen rejoices.

Kongsberg expanded and refurbished facilities
Managing Director Olli Rantanen from Kongsberg Maritime Finland – formerly Rolls-Royce Marine – says that his company was one of the founding members of Rauma Seaside Industry Park.

”After STX shipyard in Rauma was closed down, the City of Rauma bought the land area to set up an industry park for maritime-cluster companies. At the time we were already working on the premises. Since the new RMC shipyard started operations, new tenants have moved in.”

Last year, Kongsberg concentrated the company’s all production and office & storage facilities in Rauma to the industry park. New investments were made to renovate and expand even more buildings within the park for Kongsberg’s use. In particular, the production and storage facilities were given an extensive facelift, with modernisation of interior and exterior structures as well as installation of brand new electrical and ventilation systems.

”This move made our operations in Rauma considerably more efficient. The industry park has an ideal situation close to the port. Our own facilities now suit our purposes very well,” Mr. Rantanen points out.

”However, some of the park’s infrastructure is a bit dated, so some further refurbishing may still be required in the longer term.”

Mr. Rantanen is happy about the synergy benefits offered by the industry park, including security and maintenance services.

”Cooperation with the City of Rauma has been very smooth and prompt,” he says.

Fast growth for ermail
Mr, Jussi Seikkula, Managing Director of Ermail Ltd. that offers industrial painting and finishing services, says that Ermail was also one the early tenants of the Rauma Seaside Industry Park.

”We originally had our headquarters in Eurajoki. However, as soon as I heard of the new industry park, Ermail moved in. This was in the summer of 2014,” Seikkula reminisces.

”Soon after that, the new RMC shipyard started out next door. Since 2015, Ermail has won all of RMC’s paintwork contracts. We have also had extensive cooperation with Kongsberg.”

In addition to ships, painting has been needed for specialised structures such as floating hotels and terraces.

”The Seaside Industry Park is an excellent working environment – I have never seen anything like it in my 30-year career in this business. In the past five years, our company has been able to grow by 500 percent. We now employ ten times more personnel than when we started here. An even greater number of skilled workers would be welcome,” Mr. Seikkula says.

Ermail has recently invested in a new cleaning facility for the industry park, built in cooperation with other tenant companies.

”Things are easier when several cooperative partners work within the same area.”

By: Ari Mononen